Rachael Ray Nutrish Pet Food is facing a $5 million class action lawsuit for deceptive advertising.
In 2017, Rachael Ray Nutrish Pet Food was named the “fastest growing US pet food” “with sales up 49 percent in 2016 vs. the previous year.” A year later, this pet food is facing a “deceptive advertising” $5 million class action lawsuit.
Quotes from the lawsuit complaint:
To capture this growing market, Rachael Ray Nutrish aggressively advertises and promotes the Products as “Natural.”
The following product image was included in the complaint:
Natural claim on the label:
Quotes from lawsuit continued:
These claims are false, deceptive, and misleading. The Products at issue are not “Natural.” Instead, the Products contain the unnatural chemical glyphosate, a potent biocide and endocrine disruptor, with detrimental health effects that are still becoming known.Tests conducted by an independent laboratory revealed that glyphosate is present in the Products.
Rachael Ray Nutrish intended for consumers to rely on its representations, and reasonable consumers did in fact so rely. As a result of its false and misleading labeling and omissions of fact, Rachael Ray Nutrish was and is able to sell the Products to consumers in the State of New York and throughout the United States and to realize sizeable profits.
Other pet food lawsuits have been dismissed by a judge based on what the court believed a “reasonable consumer” would understand about a pet food. This lawsuit addressed the understanding of a “reasonable consumer” in the complaint by quoting consumer research (something previous lawsuits should have done)…
In 2014, the Consumer Reports National Research Center conducted a nationally representative phone survey to assess consumer opinion regarding food labeling. Sixty-six percent of all respondents in the Consumer Reports survey said that a “natural” label on packaged and processed foods means that “no toxic pesticides were used.”
Rachael Ray Nutrish knew what representations it made on the labels of the Products. It also knew how the dog food was sourced and processed, and that it contains glyphosate, an unnatural biocide.
To read the Rachel Ray Nutrish lawsuit, Click Here.
To contact the law firm, Click Here.
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
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landsharkinnc
August 8, 2018 at 10:57 am
she says ‘natural’ not organic, and unless the amount of Glyphosate exceeds the GRAS amounts I don’t think this will go very far — but it does point out that ‘NATURAL’ has absolutely NO place on a food product — unless someone comes up with a reasonable definition
Meg
August 8, 2018 at 11:16 am
Glyphosate is a pesticide that is also found in many of human food like bread and crackers, even the organic and NATURAL ones. They(manufacturers) don’t purposely add this toxin to our/pet food supply but it’s in the food chain. It’s almost contained in every produce such as corn, wheat etc…because of the commercial farming practices. It’s also a regulatory problem that pet food companies don’t need to list the ingredients before they are brought to the manufacturing factory. Because of the profit hungry corporations, consumers and pets are put in the very vulnerable place unfortunately.
T Allen
August 8, 2018 at 11:23 am
Good work by that law group! Susan I hope you are keeping track of the firms that are pursuing legal action because more and more people will be looking for this info and it could be source of income for you as well!
Jane
August 8, 2018 at 11:53 am
Sadly, it’s almost gotten to the point where the case could be made that no “reasonable” consumer would ever believe the claims on the label! Deceptive advertising seems to be standard operating procedure.
Are pet food companies required to test for things like Glyphosate and BPA and heavy metals?
And do you know how these two suits (this one and the one against Solid Gold) came about? I don’t see any mention of pets getting sick, so I’m wondering if the plaintiffs in each case just had the food tested out of curiousity. I’ve considered doing that myself, but it seems pretty costly.
Thanks for keeping us informed!
Dee
August 28, 2019 at 9:16 pm
Sorry to learn of the loss of loved pets due to commercailized pet foods that made RR a huge amount of money for endorsing and using her fan base and trust as a brand to sell out the people with. I know it goes on a lot else where. I’ve seen cook’s names on junk kitchen products like RR pots and pans too. I too bit the bug and bought RR wet and dry dog food. They wouldn’t eat the wet so that tells you something and I had the dry for a long time they didn’t care for it so I added other things to it. I lost both dogs shortly after about 6 mis apart btw never thought about it since they were up in their years due to pancreatitis. I home make my dog food now.
Ms. B Dawson
August 8, 2018 at 12:50 pm
I’m conflicted with these class action lawsuits. I do agree with Susan’s comment on another thread that lawsuits are sometimes the most direct path to changing regulations and holding companies responsible. However, this type of lawsuit looks an awful lot like ambulance chasing, rather like discrimination lawsuits filed against bars because of “ladies night” drink discounts.
On the one hand – the label cited in the lawsuit, in my opinion, has several misleading and/or deceptive claims.
= “Farm raised beef” – it’s not a lie, ALL cows are farm raised last I checked. The intent is for consumers to equate that with ‘free range’ or ‘cruelty free’.
= Chunks of stew meat are pictured – readers of this list know that’s not what the ingredients actually look like. Consumers are attracted by the appealing food-grade pictures.
= No chicken by-products, wheat or wheat gluten is true, but crowing over no wheat and then using soybean meal as the #3 ingredient and corn as the #4? My Dad would call that a ‘bait and switch’ scheme.
= And of course the term “natural” itself is nothing more that fluff marketing. As a biologist, I can make a case that crude oil is “natural”.
Nutrish is just another BS pet feed marketed by a pretty face. “Reasonable consumers” aren’t when it comes to narrowing that 6 degrees of separation from a favorite celeb – and marketing companies have known that for a hundred years!
But on the other hand, this lawsuit is going after the company because of glyphosate residues. It’s not, based on what is presented here, saying the residues are out of compliance, only that glyphosate is detectable in the food and that violates the consumer expectation of “natural” being biocide free.
Allowable limits for glyphosate have changed several times over the last few years. I’m not even sure if FDA has finally decided on proper methodology to test for it separately or if they are still including glyophsate as part of a broader test protocol that includes things like 2,4-D.
Anyone following health or environmental news should be aware that glyphosate residues are showing up throughout our food supply including organics and indeed, even in our own bodies. Some now consider it an endemic contaminant that will persist for decades even if it were banned tomorrow. Monsanto’s gift just keeps on giving.
And that brings me to my concern for potential unintended results. I wouldn’t shed a tear if “natural” was banned on labels but if this suit succeeds, companies who produce conventional and/or GMO products could use the same argument to ban “organic” on labels. If you’ve got detectable levels of substances banned from organic practices, can you put “organic” on the label even if your farming practices didn’t directly use them?
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Alzona chamg
August 8, 2018 at 10:59 pm
I bought this dog food a few months ago only 2 dogs out of 5 ate it one died of kidney failure had to put her to sleep she was 12. The other dogs espnthe 2 boy dogs refused it. I was upset with them, so just gave it to the others,I feel sick. Ow wondering,wondering did this cause LIL Bit to die before that had fed purina,home food and solid gold most the time
Lonnie
August 22, 2018 at 10:40 pm
I had a dog die just over 2 years ago. I can’t prove it was Nutrish dog food but my dog had no problems before eating the food.
Rose
August 28, 2018 at 9:42 am
I just bought a bag of RR dry cat food, half way through the bag, my kitty is peeing outside the litter box. My niece told me, don’t every buy RR pet food, I should have listened. If this food made my cat sick, I will punch RR in the face (just kidding) Kitty goes to the VET in a few days, earliest appt I could get. We should send our VET bills to RR pet food company.
S Smith
August 9, 2018 at 7:17 pm
I find it odd that my dog who has been on Rachael Ray Dog Food for a few years suddenly become sick a few weeks ago and was rushed to the emergency room, she was not able to keep her balance, collapsed a few times to the floor while at the emergency room and had a seizure in the parking lot prior to leaving the emergency room. When taken to our Vet blood work revealed high levels of liver enzymes, reading was 1,292, normal is 289, red blood cells were high indicating potential internal bleeding in her body. Vet gave her a fluid therapy to rid her body of toxins. A supplement to help with the liver and prescription Royal Canine dog food to support the liver. I was permitted to feed her chicken. I now have her on Freshpet Vital dog food, she has regained her appetite and is doing very well. My intuition leads me to believe it was the Rachael Ray dog food that poison her with toxins that caused her illness, we thought we were going to lose her. I started googling for answers yesterday. When I googled “contaminated dog food Rachael Ray dog food”, the lawsuit popped up. I’m thankful to my Vet for saving her. Thank you Susan for being an advocate for our beloved pets!! I sincerely hope the lawsuit against Rachael Ray Dog Food prevails!
Viv
January 10, 2019 at 11:04 pm
My dog has been on Rachel stupidly dog food for 3 yrs I had to rush her to the hospital due to her bleeding internally I believe it was this dog food that I trusted that everything was natural had to put her down now I find this out Rachel Ray I believe what goes around comes around it was a very difficult time for me rip stitch
Michelle Reardon
August 7, 2019 at 10:18 am
This is the EXACT same thing that just happened to both of my dogs. This horrible food NEEDS to be taken off the market and Rachael Rays company should be sewed for more than this deceptive advertising. She is killing our animals
Michelle
August 10, 2018 at 2:24 pm
https://animalwellnessmagazine.com/detox-your-dogs-liver/ Good article regarding detoxing the liver.
Pamela D Mierop
August 13, 2018 at 2:28 pm
We thought we were doing the right thing feeding our dog Sophie this food. She developed pancreatitis from Rachael Ray Dog food. This lead to Diabetes. Sophie is now on a special diet with shots twice a day. The worst is she developed cataracts because of the Diabetes and can’t see. She is only 8 years old. I don’t want this to happen to your dogs. I hope this will get the product off the shelf or make it a healthier food.
Shana
August 18, 2018 at 10:32 am
Our family dog passed away this morning and I was in shock why this happened. She was a healthy, happy 3 year old American bulldog. I switched to Rachel Ray dog food about a week and a half ago because I thought it would be healthier for her never dreaming it would kill her. I noticed she wasn’t eating as much higher as before and he stomach was upset but sadly I passed it off as she was just adjusting to the new food. Then at 3am this morning my daughter wakes me up in a panic saying something is wrong with Carley, our other dog was barking his head off in his kennel and woke her up. So completely confused right now why this poison is still being sold.
shanna myers
August 20, 2018 at 10:17 am
i had 5 puppies die from this food too………………………….
email me please lets get something going shanna.m131@gmail.com
landsharkinnc
August 19, 2018 at 6:53 am
I sincerely hope that every one who has written about a incident with their pets concerning this product is working closely with their Veterinarian to file a formal complaint with the FDA. You can post here, Social Media, any where you want, but without documentation/comments from your Veterinarian the FDA won’t put much stock, if any, into your situation . Here’s the link — take this to your vet and discuss what has happened with him/her. many do not know about this procedure
— https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/default.htm
Cynthia GENGLER
August 31, 2018 at 11:55 pm
It is difficult to get the vet to make a statement. We lost both of our pets from Waggin Tails chicken jerky strips, made in China 5 yrs ago. No one really took it serious and over 2000 dogs died from this poisoning. There was sulfur antibiotic in the chicken which dogs can’t process. We spent $2000 saving these dogs only to lose them painfully within a year. They had skin infections, diabetes, blindness, and finally death. Dogs are considered property, not considered as a human life.
S. Cacopardo
August 19, 2018 at 10:08 am
My Rottie has seizures. With Zonismide and CBD oil we went from 1 or 2 seizures a week to 1 seizure every 6-7 weeks. After switching to Nutrish his seizures began to increase. All the sudden his seizures jumped to almost a seizure a day! I realized it was the food is what made the change. I then read about the lawsuit and am sure it’s the food. I threw away the rest of the bag and went back a 5 star food and his seizures are on the decline.
SHANNA S MYERS
August 20, 2018 at 10:15 am
i had 5 pups die after eating this food
Julie W
August 28, 2018 at 1:00 pm
My dog Bailee has been on RR food for about 2 years now and out of the blue she has a UTI with blood in her stool. After reading all of this I am taking her off the food immediately!! If something happens to her I will find an attorney as well to go after that dog food company and RR!!! Bailee is family and I will be heartbroken if something happens to her!!! 🙁
Julie W
August 28, 2018 at 1:01 pm
Meant to say blood in her urine… sorry
Debra Broach
August 31, 2018 at 9:59 pm
i started feeding RR cat food to my cats close to a year ago, thinking i was switching to a healthier food. The shame is, it’s one they seem to like. I think our animals know something about the food too. They don’t seem to want to eat it. Reading these comments and reading about the lawsuit has changed my mind, on giving them, yet another brand. Honest to god, what is wrong with the pet food industries? Why do they do the things they do? What makes them think its ok to put these poisons in our pet food? Don’t they have pets? Don’t they care what their pets are eating? In everything that I’ve read, there seems to be no safe pet food on the market. What are we to do, especially when you can’t afford to get the most expensive brands. As it looks, even those aren’t good for our pets. We are being lied to about all the pet foods. We care about our animals and want to give them the best but that doesn’t seem to be possible these days. To tell you the truth it would make me happy to see all these greedy, pet food companies go bankrupt. I’m now looking into making my own with the help of holistic vets who know what they are doing, because not all vets give you good advice on pet foods either. It’s just really disgusting that more love and care is not put into the health and welfare of our fur babies. Unbelievable!
Beth Brown
September 5, 2018 at 10:36 pm
I have been a huge fan and consumer of Rachel Rays dog food for both my dogs. They usually had the lamb and brown rice but sometimes we would try different flavors to mix it up. Our 11 year old lab got sick in March 2018. we brought her in and found out she had kidney failure and was deteriorating quickly. we tried several interventions to treat her including IV fluid therapy. Our 5 year old pitbull mix got sick one month later. we noticed severe weight loss and brought him to the vets. His kidney labs were worse then our lab Bailey’s were. we started fluids and medication right away for him. he went from weighing 75 pounds to 47 pounds. He is dying now. We buried Bailey last week. Any day we are going to lose our boy Duke. both dogs only ate Rachel Ray food. We are heartbroken.
Quincey
September 12, 2018 at 2:18 pm
I recently came across this site when the information about the Rachel ray brand dog food had dangerous levels of toxins in it and seen they were being sued. I switched my dogs to this food maybe 3-4 months ago thinking I was doing the right thing. Before they were on beniful by purina I believe. They seemed to enjoy it a lot in the beginning. I had two dogs on this food. Both in perfect health from their last vet visits. One is an almost 8 year old spaniel mix the other was a 6 year old full blooded Rottweiler. I began to notice some changes in my Rottweiler with his appetite decreasing a bit and took it as his older age finally catching up to him. I got extremely concerned when one day he completely lost his vision over night. I got him into the vet immediately thinking he may have hurt his eyes playing outside or something. They rushed me to another vet when did a lot of tests and found out he had massive tumors growing out of no where on his liver and kidneys. He was under going treatment for his condition and the vet didn’t tell me to take him off the food because they were not aware that the food could have done this too him. Well a week into treatments he developed a severe infection and had to be rushed back to the vet. They began treating that as well with still hopeful results that we could slow the progression of whatever was going on and give him a decent amount of time still around and make him feel better. Five days later he passed away. He was a healthy dog who just turned 6 years old. He had never had any problems with bad blood work or tumors or acted sick until this food. This does make me question if this food killed him and if so how many other dogs lost their lives too early because of this neglect. I’m sickened and saddened by this.
Donna Locks Lewis
September 15, 2018 at 8:18 pm
I feed my dog that food one time and he is so sick if he dose feel better In by tomorrow I’m taking he to the vet
Angela ramirez
September 23, 2018 at 10:22 am
My dogs& cats have been eating RR food for years close to 3! Never had any problems. Before i was using pediagree but their skin was breaking out. They all love RR and turn their noses up to any other kind, even the expensive ones. Their skin is clear, shiny and healthy. Vet says they are completely healthy.
Joanne McKenna
October 5, 2018 at 2:45 pm
I wish I read this before trying.. I have 2 pitbulls, 1 with a skin allergy. I bought this and they loved it. Last they both were very sick, one was vomiting the other scratching…He was also very hot..I never saw this reaction before, something isn’t right…we brought it back and told the manager..shouldn’t they pull this from the shelf?
Lynn Luchetti
October 14, 2018 at 5:55 am
My dogs have been on this exclusively for several years. My seven year old afghan just came down with lymphoma and is not expected to live more than two months. We have trusted this brand of dog food based on RR commitment to clean food. It is very disappointing we have put out pets at a health risk after trying so hard to feed only quality food. I feel she should have done more research before marketing this product. Now our pets suffer, and we pay the price of loosing what many of consider family members before their time. The damage has been done.
Brenda Estay
January 11, 2019 at 10:51 pm
Wow I was feeding my dog RR and all of a sudden she had uti every month very bad ones she was also peeing blood in stead of pee. she had never had a UTI untill She was put on that food. Her health also started to decline had to have her put to sleep. Wonder if that’s a law suit from the food. Any lawyers think it is a case please contact me.
kiitin
January 19, 2019 at 12:28 pm
Ive had 2 cats become sick and 1 of the 2 die after starting RR cat food. Both vomiting and impacted from constipation. No problems before the cat food. Now I’m force feeding one cat BETTER food because hes still so sick. My suspicion is the cat food. Well obviously. Vet not recommended
Susan Thixton
January 19, 2019 at 2:07 pm
I am so, so sorry for your loss. You have my hopes that your second kitty fully recovers. Please report this to FDA. Even during the government shutdown they are monitoring complaints. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm182403.htm
Cristy Fletcher
February 1, 2019 at 10:24 pm
I have 2 dogs that both got sick shortly after I started feeding them RR dog food. One had an allergy flare up which caused obsessive paw chewing, and the other suffered worse. She developed pancreatitis. Luckily they are both fine now, unfortunately it took a very expensive vet visit to bring them to good health. Do not buy this food!!!
Tracy G
April 13, 2019 at 5:39 pm
Do NOT buy RR wet cat food! My cat was older, but doing fine. I decided to try RR wet food to give him some variety. He gobbled down three containers of the food and by day 2, had bloody diarrhea and a lot of it. I had to have him put to sleep. Anyone reading this may find this anecdotal or conjecture, but, this food is what caused the demise of our beloved family pet.
Erica Schandl
July 24, 2019 at 4:03 pm
I fed my 1yr old service kitty RR dry cat food for about six months and just yesterday I had to emergency rush him to the vet for a urethral blockage from kidney stones. Its heart breaking seeing him in so much pain! Im a very poor college student and wondering if theres any financial compensation for vet bills from the company? or any other way I can get help?
Cleo gonske
September 30, 2019 at 4:48 pm
My sweet baby is at the vet right now with liver damage. Don’t know if she will make it. Called “baby with the happy tail” so full of life and now teeth and eyes are yellow. She is Siamese who had the most intense blue eyes ever!!!
Darlene G
October 1, 2019 at 5:24 pm
Wow. I had started feeding my cat this a few months back. Yesterday he had to be rushed to the vet for a uretha blockage. His potassium and creatine are high. This vet bill is not going to be cheap. I hope I got him there in time. He had blood coming out of the catheter and that part has cleared up .I am pissed.I hope there is a class action lawsuit.
Eleanor carroll
May 21, 2020 at 9:23 pm
I feed this food for years. One dog died. I would like info on this class action. . Terrible food. I have 7 dogs.
Mariel
June 20, 2020 at 3:28 am
I cannot believe RR or anyone would put their name on pet food that is actually killing people’s family members. Today, I had to put my beautiful 8yo Minnie(chihuahua/Maltese mix) down. In February, her liver values were in the 1000s, we decided to change her diet and put her on Royal Canin. We had her blood retested in May and her values had gone back down to the 300s, still not the best but definitely improved. Fast forward to this past week, my Minnie started vomiting and was unable to hold anything down including water. She went into liver failure and there was nothing the vet could do to save her. Her liver wasn’t strong enough to reset itself. Her values were so high and unable to read on the machine.
I wish I would have discovered this site sooner. I am 100% convinced this food is what ultimately killed my dog.
Nicky
January 18, 2024 at 2:34 pm
I started feeding my cat rachel ray food and he got soooo sick from constipation to the degree of multiple hospital visits.. vomiting constipation, and severe contractions he almost died!! stay away from this stuff!